Oakdale's General Plan update process is ready to move forward after the Oakdale Planning Commission and the Oakdale City Council hosted their last public study session on Monday night, Oct. 10. The joint meeting was the last in a series of public workshops to draft the language of the updated general plan.

After two years of construction, $90 million dollars, and thousands of man-hours spent, the new Oak Valley Hospital will be open to the public on Dec. 10 for community tours. The pre-opening will be a one-day only event, and the new hospital building will not be in use until early 2012.

Although an email circulated recently by three fire agency chiefs hoping for a CalFIRE Schedule A contract reported that the state agency had declined support for the contract, CalFIRE Unit Chief Brian Kirk clarified the state's position.

Members of the equine community were concerned by the report of a September outbreak of Equine Herpes Virus discovered at Kennedy Meadows on the heels of a May outbreak in Utah confirmed by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) where 400 horses were exposed to the virus, but local veterinarians were quick to dispel any fears that may have erupted over this common, but rarely fatal affliction.

CalFIRE recently delivered disappointing news to the three local fire agencies hoping to become a part of the state fire department when they declined the opportunity to support a Schedule A contract with Stanislaus Consolidated, Oakdale Rural Fire Protection District and Oakdale City Fire.

It has long been said that we should value those we meet for they may pass this way only once in our lives. There has been one exception with me in a very special and magnetic person who keeps returning, with a keen perception of his flock, as a Catholic priest.

The street fair and festival combo known as the Riverbank Cheese & Wine Exposition will return to the downtown area on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 8 and 9 with a few tweaks made by the sponsoring Riverbank Rotary Club to an event that has proved hugely successful year after year.

Chardonnay, cabernet, riesling, zinfandel, pinot noir, merlot, dessert wines – all your favorites are there. These wines and more will all be making an appearance to satisfy the palates of wine enthusiasts at the 2011 Riverbank Cheese and Wine Festival on Oct. 8-9.

Family-friendly is the goal and that's exactly the kind of entertainment scheduled for the Riverbank Cheese and Wine Exposition, Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 8-9 on Santa Fe and Third streets in the heart of downtown Riverbank.

Oakdale voters will be faced with a decision on Nov. 8 that will help determine the city's finances for the next three years. Measure O will ask voters if they want to fund a half-cent sales tax increase on most purchases made within the City of Oakdale. The sales tax increase will go to Oakdale City general funds, which pays most of the city's expenses.

Upon the heels of Oakdale Rural Fire Protection District Chief Lee Winton's two-year term ending, negotiations have begun to bring on Steve Mayotte, Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District Chief, on a limited, part-time basis as an administrative chief to Oakdale's rural district but the rural fire company's labor group members have been vocal in their concern.

Oakdale City Council is taking steps to get every streetlight in Oakdale turned back on in the near future. Council voted 5-0 at their Monday night meeting, Oct. 3, to seek loans to replace 810 city-owned streetlights with more energy-efficient magnetic induction fixtures.

Members of the Oak Valley Hospital District board welcomed Escalon native Vincent Arthur Bacay as their third Rural PRIME medical student at their Sept. 28 board meeting. Bacay will be working on an eight-week primary care rotation with several Oakdale doctors until Oct. 21.